FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT ULSTER VOLUNTEER FORCE - PAGE 3

Reports of an imminent breakthrough in negotiations between Ireland and Britain over Northern Ireland have made Ulster's Official Unionist Party more than a little uneasy. James Molyneaux, leader of the party, which speaks for most of the province's Protestant voters, has gone so far as to hint at the possibility of civil war if the Dublin government gained a role in Northern Ireland's affairs. Molyneaux was reacting to a report in the Financial Times of London that an Anglo-Irish "agreement will be signed at a bilateral summit this autumn."

The stereotypical view of Northern Ireland is that Protestants form the prosperous middle and upper classes while Catholics find it harder to get jobs and are mostly at the bottom of the economic scale. There is some validity in that, but Alan Curry, 45, and his wife, Samantha, are Protestants who have never known anything but poverty. They live in the lower-middle-class Tullyally public-housing complex outside Londonderry, and Curry noted that, among 1,000 political units in Northern Ireland, it ranks 90th from the bottom in an assessment of deprived areas.

Outlawed Protestant gangs set off bombs at rivals' homes, and police on Tuesday warned that the deadly feud could spiral out of control. Police backed by British troops patrolled Protestant east Belfast as part of an effort to suppress mounting attacks between the Ulster Volunteer Force and the breakaway Loyalist Volunteer Force. Tensions between the two groups have been building for months and exploded last week when the UVF killed Brian Stewart, 34, the LVF's senior figure in east Belfast.

Northern Ireland's largest pro-British paramilitary group told an international disarmament commission Wednesday it won't discard its weapons unless the IRA starts doing so first. Canadian Gen. John de Chastelain's mission to disarm Northern Ireland's rival bands of outlaws is one of the most disputed aspects of the Belfast peace agreement. The April 10 accord, strongly endorsed in referendums last week, commits the IRA-allied Sinn Fein party and representatives of the main pro-British gangs, the Ulster Defense Association and Ulster Volunteer Force, to "use any influence they may have" to ensure their sides' total disarmament by mid-2000.

Carrying assault rifles and dressed entirely in black, masked commanders of the outlawed Ulster Volunteer Force ordered a violent dissident faction to disband. The move raised fears of a bloody split within the pro-British Protestant paramilitary group, which has maintained a cease-fire for 21 months despite resumed violence by its enemy, the Irish Republican Army. The UVF dissidents, led by a notorious figure nicknamed "King Rat" by local newspapers, have been increasingly critical of their peace-minded leaders.

Every convicted terrorist imprisoned in Northern Ireland went home for the holidays Thursday, thanks to the British government's latest initiative to support the Belfast peace accord. The 139 prisoners walked free from the Maze Prison southwest of Belfast to the cheers and tears of their waiting friends and relatives. The prisoners include members of the Irish Republican Army and the province's outlawed pro-British groups, the Ulster Defense Association and Ulster Volunteer Force.

A major outlawed Protestant group in Northern Ireland has abandoned its 11-year-old truce and is officially an enemy of the peace once again, Britain declared Tuesday in a long-expected verdict against the Ulster Volunteer Force. 2 KILLED IN STORE SHOOTING: A woman and man were killed Tuesday in a shooting in an exclusive London department store, police said. The two, both around 30, were pronounced dead on the ground floor of the Harvey Nichols store, London's Metropolitan Police said.

A former official in IRA-allied Sinn Fein escaped a pipe-bomb attack on his home Tuesday. Brendan Curran, a convicted Irish Republican Army bomber, was sitting in his living room at about 2 a.m. when a car drove up outside. Shortly afterward, a bomb was thrown at his house. "It bounced off the (reinforced) window and landed in the garden where it blew a large crater in the ground," said Curran. He said the device contained nails and ball bearings. Curran, who spent 11 years in prison in connection with two 1974 car bombs, was seriously injured by gunmen of the pro-British Ulster Volunteer Force in 1989.

BELFAST (Reuters) - Forty-seven police were injured while trying to separate Catholic and Protestant rioters in Belfast on Sunday, when violence broke out during a march by a Catholic band, Northern Ireland police said on Monday. Police fired water cannon to defend themselves from petrol bombs, fireworks, stones and bottles thrown at them by both sides in running battles lasting nearly 12 hours, police said. The initial violence was caused by pro-British Protestant groups demonstrating against the Republican band parade, the police added.

By Larry Habegger and Andrew Davis, Special to Tribune Newspapers | June 24, 2011

Britain Supporters of an organization that opposes tax avoidance will join with student activists as part of a "public spectacular" Thursday in London to back a day of widespread strikes. A large coalition of groups opposed to proposed government cuts is expected to bring educational facilities, ports and job centers to a standstill. Some 750,000 public-sector workers from major unions are expected to take part in the strike. Tourists in London should be aware of the massive protests and expect delays in transportation.